Read and watch the following:
Bartle, Richard. “HEARTS, CLUBS, DIAMONDS, SPADES: PLAYERS WHO SUIT MUDS.” Journal of MUD Research, 1996, https://mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm. Fernandez-Vara, Clara. “Play's the Thing: A Framework to Study Videogames as Performance.” Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory, Sept. 2009, https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/100276. “Relational Aesthetics Movement Overview.” The Art Story, https://www.theartstory.org/movement/relational-aesthetics.
“Fluxus Movement Overview.” The Art Story, https://www.theartstory.org/movement/fluxus.
“Cut Piece.” 21 Mar. 1965, New York, Carnegie Recital Hall, https://vimeo.com/106706806.
Ecker, Lorenz Caspar. “Relational Gaming On the Social Aspect of Artistic Computer Games.” Springerin, no. 4/2020, Apr. 2020, https://www.springerin.at/en/2020/4/relational-gaming/. Brush up on ARGs and pick one from this list to go in-depth with and present to the class:
Answer the following (a paragraph for each):
Identify a social convention. What are the rules? Are there similarities to a “game”?
Respond to this week's reading. Is there anything inspiring/useful for you?
Pick an ARG from the list mentioned above. Be prepared to analyze it in class. Pay special attention to how it creates relationships between players and communities.
DUE BEFORE SUNDAY 2/13
1. Spring Festival couplets, every Spring Festival, whether in urban or rural areas, every household should pick beautiful red couplets and stick them on the door, saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new year. The Spring Festival couplets depict beautiful images and express good wishes with neat, concise, and delicate words. It is a unique literary form in China and an important Chinese New Year custom. In the game, players will also use graffiti or text to decorate their camps to express specific emotions. There are even some games that add Spring Festival couplets to the game during Chinese New Year to add atmosphere to players.
2. In this week’s reading, I learned 4 types of players: Explo…
Identify a social convention. What are the rules? Are there similarities to a “game”?
The social convention that I want to introduce was that people cannot be involved in dirty things when it was the first day of Tibetan new year in Tibetan culture. Rule number one, people cannot touch or use cleaning tools to sort out garbage that day. Rule number two, people are better not trash talk that day. With that. It was like having some extra rules or extra benefits on a specific day in the game system. And the theme of the convention was more like some actions that are prevented in games, like Pokémon series trainers cannot use Pokeball to capture other trainers’ Pokémon.
Respond…
I find the convention of building and personalizing a space (houses, fire camps, base etc.) is important in games as much as in the real world. Players often take pride in decorating their bases with collectibles which show their dedication to the game. This is very similar to how society treats houses in the real world, with often spending their most significant portion of their entire monetary value on their housing spaces. They also decorate their homes with trophies, customized paintings, posters, etc. This is a common presence in simulation games, where players need to save their character and play in real time. These games are treated by their core audience as a second world with a second life.
I…
1. The social convention I want to identify is Ramadan. There are several rules to follow. As Muslims, we fast from dawn to sunset. Therefore, we need to take the predawn meals and have the nightly feast to break the fast. In addition to that, we need to recite the Quran. From my perspective, there are some similarities between Ramadan and a “game”. Firstly, both of them have specific rules to be followed. Secondly, people will feel happy and rewarded after they experience Ramadan, and players feel the same way after they finish the levels or the games. After a whole-day fast, I realized how valuable the food was.
2. I think this week’s readings are thought-provoking. I like…
1. One of the social conventions I can think of is that we should always dress appropriately according to the place we are attending. For example, if we are going to school, we should wear school uniforms if there is one. If we are attending a western-style wedding, we should wear suits in order to make us look more formal. I think this is very similar to a “game” in terms of we should always pick the right item or make the right choice in order to proceed in the game. If we wear inappropriate clothes in certain places, it is very likely to leave bad impressions on others. In a game, a bad decision can lead to failure as…